Bosnia and Herzegovina, The People of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Zenica, Bosnians, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar

In 1991, in the last census taken in Yugoslavia, Bosnia had a population of 4,364,574. In 1998, after Bosnia’s civil war, which left hundreds of thousands dead and forced many thousands of others to flee, the United States government estimated that Bosnia’s population was 3,365,727. Casualty rates during the war were approximately equal for the ethnic Muslims and Serbs (between 1992 and 1995, 7.4 percent of the prewar Muslim population and 7.1 percent of the prewar Serb population were killed or listed as missing); the casualty rate for the ethnic Croats was much lower. Of the Bosnians who fled, most went to the FRY, Germany, Croatia, and Sweden.

Bosnia’s population density in 1998 was 66 persons per sq km (170 per sq mi). In 1997, 42 percent of the population lived in cities and towns. The largest cities are Sarajevo, the capital and an important cultural and commercial center; Zenica; Banja Luka; Mostar; and Tuzla.